Wholesaler Pleads Guilty In Overfishing Conspiracy

In State Role, St. Mary's Man Falsified Data

A St. Mary's County fish wholesaler pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges in connection with an overfishing scheme that has embroiled more than a dozen area watermen, authorities said.

Robert Lumpkins, 55, was the linchpin of the watermen's conspiracy, falsely recording the amount and weight of the rockfish they caught in his role as a state-designated check-in agent, prosecutors said. By law, watermen who catch striped bass must follow strict quotas and are required to accurately record the number and weight of the fish they catch, prosecutors said. The false recording allowed the men to fish beyond the maximum quotas, prosecutors said.

Lumpkins, the owner of Piney Point-based Golden Eye Seafood, also purchased fish that were outside the legal size limits from an undercover agent, reselling them to purchasers in New York, Virginia and California, prosecutors said.

"That's obviously a significant position of trust where the government is depending on him to make sure everybody takes their lawful share," said Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for Maryland. "The impact of environmental crimes such as this one is cumulative. That is the reason that these regulations are set and the reason the laws are enforced."

Lumpkins's attorney, Robert C. Bonsib, said that although his client agreed to plead guilty to violating federal fishing laws, he still had "some very basic disagreements with the government about the nature and extent of any wrongdoing alleged in this matter."

"We believe that Mr. Lumpkins is among a group of hardworking, generations-deep watermen who have tried to survive in very difficult times . . . and they have had to work their way through a sticky wicket of confusing, inconsistent and unrealistic regulations imposed on them by various government entities," Bonsib said. He said Lumpkins's role as a state-designated check-in agent was an "unpaid, volunteer position" that fewer people would now probably take on having seen the risk it entails.

Lumpkins is scheduled to be sentenced over a two-day hearing Sept. 22 and 23 at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $1 million fine. His business, Golden Eye Seafood, could also face $1.5 million in penalties, prosecutors said.

Including Lumpkins and Golden Eye, 15 people and two fish wholesalers have been charged in connection with the federal fishing investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. All but four of the people have pleaded guilty. A number have been sentenced to prison time or received significant fines.